Among Williamson’s odd omissions was not mentioning the misty eyed defense of white supremacy National Review founder William F. Buckley penned in 1957. (He also ignores Buckley’s view that the Civil Rights Act was “artificially deduced from the Commerce Clause of the Constitution or from the 14th Amendment.”) That many liberal Republicans supported civil rights, and many racist Democrats didn’t, doesn’t alter the fact that the modern conservative movement really begins with a man who campaigned on opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Williamson has “nothing to add” to the historical evidence that debunks his argument. I supposed I wouldn’t have “anything to add” either, but I’m wondering how that conversation went with National Review‘s editors.

NR Editor: Do you think maybe in this piece about conservatives being awesome at the time we should acknowledge what was actually written in this magazine in the 1950s and 60s?